Brothers Parent Guide

Ever since they were kids, Jady (Peter Dinklage) and Moke Munger (Josh Brolin) have been committing every kind of theft they can. Or, at least, Jady is. Moke just keeps getting dragged along because he’s good with locks and Jady is very, very persistent.

Then Jady gets busted, spends five years in jail, and is just now getting out. But he’s not out on good behaviour: He’s cut a deal with a corrupt guard, Farful (Brendan Fraser) and his father, a judge (M. Emmet Walsh), who have agreed to slip him out early in exchange for some hot emeralds. Jady’s mother, Cath (Glenn Close) stole them when he was a teenager and stashed them away. The real catch is that Jady needs Moke’s help to get them back– and Moke isn’t going to be easy to drag along anymore. Without Jady to lead him into trouble, Moke has a job, a house, a wife (Taylour Paige), and a kid on the way. But Jady has never been one to take no for an answer…

The dysfunctional brothers Munger are well cast, and Brolin and Dinklage are both clearly having fun with the characters. In fact, the entire cast is quite good, and Brendan Fraser is delightfully unhinged. Sadly, despite the high quality of the acting, the script merely aspires to mediocrity, and frequently falls short.

Then there are the negative content concerns, which are substantial. Despite their criminal proclivities, our characters are more interested in property crimes than hurting anybody, so the film is comparatively low on violence. The guys are, however, very interested in profanity, and indulge that habit as frequently as possible. There’s an even bigger issue, which takes the form of an uncanny CG orangutan who sexually assaults two characters, seemingly just for laughs. Not only is it unnecessary; the sexual violence feels bizarrely out of place with the rest of the film. And, yes, it’s just plain gross.

Any goodwill I had for the cast and their chemistry was so thoroughly buried under a continental shelf of tropes that it’s hard to appreciate. And that’s before the primate shows up. There’s definitely a good movie to be made with this cast – it just isn’t this one. Brothers is merely a bland mousetrap with Peter Dinklage and Josh Brolin as the cheese.